Dwight Peck's personal website

Winter 2015-2016

Retirement is still as much fun as ever



You may not find this terribly rewarding unless you're included here, so this is a good time for casual and random browsers to turn back before they get too caught up in the sweep and majesty of the proceedings and can't let go.

Reminiscences in the forest of Grande Rolat

Back in the Jura briefly for a fine afternoon

The road to the Col du Marchairuz, imprinted on memory and sorely missed since our move away from the region, but we're here now, 14 February 2016.

Dr Joe has consented to put himself and his little VW at our service, and we're looking forward to an afternoon of unparalleled fun.

Over at the Lac de Joux side of the Marchairuz, our easy strolling along our predecessors' trail is soon boring, so we'll head off into this big depression on the right.

Good idea: Dr Joe cannot be restrained.

Over to the edge of the big depression

-- Jump.

The flattish bottom of the depression, but it cannot last

Whatever goes down must eventually go up again -- the far end of the big depression

Inexhaustible, and still enthusiastic

He's made rather a mess of it, but we need to follow along.

We're deliberately off into uncharted territory, but our guide carries on with a sense of purpose. The immediate purpose is just not to fall into that semi-covered trench in the limestone forest floor.

Just step right round what is probably the end of the hole.

No problems, this time.

More little uphills. We're lost now.

Everything's familiar, and nothing's familiar. That's the great thing about the Jura forests: once off the marked trails, you never know where you are. You get to guess, and experiment.

And when you're lost and you see something that you recognize, you seldom know whether, when you were here last, you were lost then, too.

The one sure thing here is any protracted downhill now will land us up in France.

Dr Joe is looking for familiar trees, or bushes.

Deeper into the forest

No consideration for the stragglers

Direttissima

Wait; these nearly parallel ruts cannot be random.

Definitely not random; a monster forestry vehicle has been here; we have a new theory about where we are, or might be.

If our new theory is correct, though, we'll need to plod along those ruts for a couple of kilometres before we can verify it. Fortunately, Dr Joe is still sticking with us.

We've been vindicated: that's a disused perpendicular stone wall with a gateway in it, as predicted by theory. We'll now make a left turn.

This is the high point in the forest of Grande Rolat on the northern side of the Col du Marchairuz.

Don't get separated.

Now we start downhill again, level by level

We're on more or less familiar ground now.

Not all of it is equally familiar. Generic snowy forest.

Dr Joe is making his way eastward along one of the shelves on the southern side of the main ridge.

Dr Joe is proceeding quickly, hopefully watching carefully for anomalies in the forest floor . . .

Watching at least as carefully as he was, in precisely the same spot, almost exactly 11 years ago, when he disappeared abruptly from view.

We're wandering again, but generally back towards the car.

Nearly there

That's it for today.


Feedback and suggestions are welcome if positive, resented if negative, . All rights reserved, all wrongs avenged. Posted 25 February 2016.


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